Chapter Three
BELLA, AMY, LEANNA, and Jenna were used to the shock of cold that often trailed sunset like a shadow on Cape Cod beaches. They hunkered down around the bonfire on beach chairs with thick sweatshirts and blankets across their laps. Layers of deep purples and dark blue surrounded the white globe of the moon, hovering above the ocean. Soon the sky would darken and the stars would become visible, but for the next thirty minutes, Bella had a dusky view of the surf fishermen lined up on the beach, hoping for one final bite from a bluefish that had somehow avoided becoming prey to the seals that had claimed the New England surf. It struck her how different her life would be if she lived on the Cape full-time. Would she make the time to sit on the beach on chilly March evenings or walk by the edge of the water in a parka, midwinter?
“Are you bummed that Kurt stayed with Jamie tonight?” Bella asked Leanna. Jamie Reed was another Seaside resident. His grandmother, Vera, owned the cottage next to Leanna’s, and Jamie had grown up spending summers with Bella and the girls.
“Oh, goodness no. But Amy’s gonna be mad, because when Tony found out that Kurt was staying, I heard him tell Kurt he’d stay, too.” Leanna pulled her blanket up in front of her face. “Don’t kill the messenger.”
Amy rolled her eyes. “You guys act like something between me and Tony is even a possibility. I told you. I tried to sail that ship and he turned me down. I’m not a glutton for punishment.”
“Oh, please. You know perfectly well that if he asked you out you’d jump at the chance.” Jenna bumped Amy with her shoulder.
“Of course. I’m realistic, not stupid,” Amy said. “But I won’t make the mistake of coming on to him again.”
Jenna nudged a rock with her toe, then leaned forward to pick it up.
“Here we go,” Amy said. Jenna had been a rock collector for as long as Bella could remember. Each summer she zeroed in on a different type of rock. This summer her fascination was on heart-shaped rocks.
Jenna shot to her feet with her hands on her hips. “Who’s coming with me to look for rocks?” She bounced on her toes like an excited kid.
“I thought you had a self-imposed moratorium on rock collecting,” Bella reminded her. “Last summer you said your cottage runneth over, and that you weren’t going to be collecting for a while.” Runneth over might be an understatement. Every flat surface in Jen’s cottage was adorned with rocks, including various corners of the hardwood floor and the rails of her deck.
Jenna lowered her eyes and twisted from side to side with her hands clasped behind her back. “I know. But I’ll only take them if they’re absolutely perfect.” She tucked her hair behind her ear and her eyes widened with mischief. “And you know how picky I am.” She pulled Bella to her feet, then bounced up and down again. “Please, please, please? Just until it’s dark?”
Bella rolled her eyes. “Fine. But you owe me big-time.”
Jenna threw herself into Bella’s arms. “Yay!”
“You’re such a fool.” Bella laughed and laid her blanket over Amy’s lap. “Here you go, princess. Don’t drink all the wine without me.”
The wet sand was cold beneath Bella’s bare feet. She didn’t mind walking with Jenna, and she didn’t even care that Jenna owned more rocks than any mountain this side of Utah. She couldn’t put her finger on why, but she was edgy tonight. She’d told her friends she was giving herself until Monday to start working on the program for the school. She’d also told them that she wasn’t interested in super sexy Caden Grant in that blue uniform that hugged his broad chest and exposed well-muscled forearms and eyes that seemed to look right through her. But the job and Caden were all she could think about.
Jenna looped her arm through Bella’s. “Thanks for walking with me. I know I won’t find any good rocks, but I still like to look.”
“I know you do.” She loved everything about Jenna, from her obsessive-compulsive need for organization to her flip-flop fetish and her love of rocks. Jenna was always happy. Even when something pissed her off, she had the ability to spin a situation in her mind so her good mood wasn’t sucked away.
Jen picked up a rock and washed it off in the surf. She ran her fingers over the rounded edges, then scrunched her nose and tossed it into the ocean.
“Are you nervous about your whole job, house situation?” she asked, bending down to inspect another rock.
“Nervous? You might say that. I’m excited and maybe a little scared, but not really. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“You could end up jobless and living in your cottage.” Jenna smiled up at her. “Guess that’s not really so bad, is it? But it’s just not like you to pick up and start over. That’s more Leanna’s thing. She’s always been part gypsy like that, but you’re stable Mable.” Jenna tossed the unimpressive rock into the water.
“I know.” Jenna knew her so well. She’d nailed the reason Bella was feeling edgy before Bella even realized it. “It’s totally not like me, but dating Jay wasn’t like me, either. I never date guys I work with. I know better than that—or at least I thought I knew better than that. It can only lead to complications with peers and supervisors. Everyone knows that. I’ve been mulling this over in my mind since spring break, and this is what I came up with. I’m almost thirty, and I worked so hard to get where I was in the school system, and it’s been great, but I am stable Mable. So even if it weren’t great, I’d have stayed for years.”
“So, what are you saying?” Jenna stopped walking and gave Bella her full attention.
“Well, as I said, ever since Leanna made her dreams come true, I’ve been thinking about making mine come true. I think I dated Jay to force myself to make a change.”
“Like a subconscious nudge?” The moon rose higher into the sky, glistening off the water behind Jenna.
“More like a conscious and trying-to-ignore it nudge,” Bella said. “The whole time I dated Jay, I wasn’t connected to him. When I found out he had lied about being divorced and was just separated, I broke it off without thinking twice. And you know what? I knew that second that I was going to quit my job. What does that say about me?”
Jenna leaned her head against Bella’s arm and walked farther down the beach. “It says you’re normal, like the rest of us. That you followed your heart, which, I might remind you, is exactly what you told Leanna to do when she met Kurt.”
“Do you think it’s still called following your heart when you make a career and life change, or is that following your mind?” Bella was having a hard time separating the two when it came to the Cape. Everything about the Cape filled her with happiness, from the morning crows to the smell of the salty air, making her heart very much involved with her decision. But this decision was also made with her mind. She wanted a challenge, and the work-study program offered that.
“I think it’s both.”
“So you don’t think I’m nuts? And I’m serious about not dating, too. I think I need to make sure my life is in order before I become some guy-who-can’t-be-honest-or-keep-a-commitment’s girlfriend.”
“I think you’re brilliant and fearless, not nuts.” Jenna pointed down the beach. “Look, don’t you love when the fishermen head back to their cars like little soldiers in a line? It’s like the minute the gray sky turns black, they have some secret wave, or nod, or something that alerts them all to fall in line.”
Bella squinted at the fishermen with their long surf fishing poles over their shoulders and white buckets hanging from their thick, bare arms.
“Show me a man who’s not a jerk and I’ll go searching for rocks with you every day of the summer.” Bella nodded to two men as they walked past. She turned to check out their butts and walked backward. “I love rugged men.” Okay, so maybe I won’t swear off men completely. I just won’t get involved. “What’s better than a guy in a pair of cargo shorts and a tank top who’s not afraid to get his hands dirty and isn’t overly concerned with his looks? A man who can take the cold night air against his skin? You know they can keep you warm.”
“How about a hot cop without his uniform?” Jenna tugged Bella’s arm.
Bella spun around just in time to see Caden Grant’s profile as he leaned in close to a teenage boy. Even while he spoke, he had a smile on his lips. It lit up his eyes. He and the boy each carried a fishing pole over one shoulder and Caden also carried a bucket in his other hand. Bella reached for Jenna’s hand as she drank in his faded jeans, rolled up at the cuffs. His feet were bare and his gait was as casual as it was confident. And—holy mother of hotness—his white T-shirt hugged his broad shoulders in a way that practically made her drool. He leaned toward the boy, giving him his full attention in a way that felt to Bella like an embrace.
Caden threw his head back with a hearty, deep laugh.
Jenna squeezed her hand. “Close your mouth,” she whispered.
Bella followed her advice, or at least she hoped she did. Her brain was busy studying the man who, even without the uniform, had an in-control edge about him that wasn’t dangerous or mysterious, but so self-assured and warm that she wanted to be part of his inner circle.
Caden’s chin came back to center, and a breath later their eyes connected. The easy, sexy smile that followed did her in.
CADEN STOPPED IN his tracks at the sight of Bella wearing a powder-blue hoodie and a pair of jeans that accentuated her figure. He tried to name the startlingly unfamiliar feeling in his chest. Full, was the best he could come up with. He felt full.
He’d been wondering if in his mind he’d exaggerated the instant attraction he’d felt when he’d seen her the night before, but his quickening pulse was all the confirmation he needed to know that what he’d felt was definitely not a fluke.
“Bella. Hi.” Caden had been playing a game with himself all afternoon. He told himself that if he ran into her again, he’d ask her out, and if not, then he would stop thinking about her altogether. Then he’d driven by Seaside about six times throughout the day, hoping to spot her so he could ask her out.
The breeze blew her blond hair back from her face, revealing thinly arched brows above the warm eyes that had sucked him right in last night. She was even more beautiful than he remembered.
“We didn’t really get properly introduced last night. I’m Jenna.” The short brunette ran her eyes between Caden and Evan.
“This is my son, Evan. Evan, this is Bella and Jenna. I met them while I was on duty last night.” He watched Bella look from him to Evan, then back again. Even at twenty Caden had never felt anything but pride for his son, but now he wondered if Bella felt the same attraction he did, and if so, did his having a son change that?
Evan arched a brow in a look that translated as, You met a woman? It seemed too old for his teenage son to be casting his way.
“Hi,” Evan said.
Caden stifled the urge to reach over and move his son’s hair out of his eyes.
“Did you catch anything?” Jenna peered into the bucket.
“Mung,” Evan answered. Mung was fisherman’s speak for thick seaweed that tangled in their lines.
“Gross. I hate that.” Jenna scrunched her nose.
“Yeah, it’s pretty gross,” Evan said.
“Are you just out for a walk?” Caden gripped the bucket tighter to ease his nerves. It had been so long since he’d been interested in a woman that it took him a minute to get used to his quickening pulse and the tightening in his gut.
“We’re having a bonfire.” Bella pointed to the fire down the beach. Her friends waved, and Bella waved back.
“Want to join us?” Jenna asked.
Bella shot her a look that Caden couldn’t read—she was either pissed or excited—and the two emotions were so far apart that he went with a safe answer, giving her an easy out.
“That’s okay. We don’t want to impose.”
“A bonfire might be fun,” Evan said.
“Of course it’s fun.” Jenna grabbed Evan’s arm and pulled him toward the bonfire. “Come on. I’ll introduce you to everyone.”
The sound of waves breaking filled the silence that stretched between Caden and Bella. Oddly, he didn’t feel rushed to break that silence. Just being in her presence felt nice—almost natural. He forced himself to say something, in case she felt uncomfortable, although she didn’t appear to, the way she was smiling up at him.
“I guess that means we’re staying, but really, if you’d rather we didn’t—”
“No. I’d rather you did. Stay.” Bella seemed quieter than she’d been the previous evening, and Caden didn’t know how to read that, either. A gust of wind swept off the ocean and whipped her hair across her cheek. She shook her head to clear it away. It flew right back again.
Without thinking, he stepped closer and tucked the wayward lock behind her ear.
Bella’s eyes narrowed, as if she were uncomfortable. “That means we’re married, you know.”
She said it with such a serious face that for a second he worried he’d crossed a line. What the devil was he thinking?
Oh, just go with it. “Cool. I’ve never been married before.”
Bella slid a confused glance at Evan, who was making himself right at home with the others.
“Evan’s mom and I were never married,” he explained. Why was he nervous talking about Evan? That was new, too.
“Oh,” Bella said.
He was sure she was waiting for an explanation, but he’d found that when he shared the story of how he and Evan came to be a family, women got weird, like he was a lost puppy who needed taking care of. He didn’t need that garbage. He loved his life with Evan, and he’d never regretted his decision to leave school to take care of him.
“So, you sure you don’t mind if we hang out for a while?”
“The more the merrier, as long as you don’t mind hanging out with a bunch of women. It’s pretty chilly. Do you want to go sit by the fire?”
He’d much rather wrap his arms around her. Short of that, sitting by a fire with Bella sounded just fine. “Sure.”
At the fire, Jenna threw Caden a blanket. “Here, you and Bella can sit on it.”
He almost made a joke about being already married and checked himself before the words left his lips. He didn’t need to freak out Evan, although from the looks of things, he was feeling pretty darn comfortable. He had his hand buried in a bag of marshmallows.
Caden glanced at the others. “I hope we’re not intruding.” He held a hand out to the brunette that had stuck her head out of the cottage window. “I don’t think we met last night. I’m Caden Grant. And this is my son, Evan.”
“I’m Leanna.” She shook his hand. “Evan already introduced himself.”
He was glad to hear that.
The skinny blonde waved to him. “I’m Amy. Want a glass of wine? Oh, and, Evan, we have Sprite if you’d like, too.”
“No, thanks. I have to drive,” Caden answered. The cop in him cataloged that all four of them were drinking.
“That’s why we take a cab to the bonfires. They’ll pick us up at eleven. Like our personal chauffer,” Amy explained.
“Good to know.” Responsible. He liked that. Caden and Evan hadn’t been to a bonfire on the beach, and it wasn’t something Caden would have instigated on his own. He was glad for the opportunity not just to see Bella again, but for Evan to be exposed to something new.
Amy handed a plastic cup of wine to Bella, then dug through the cooler and handed a can of Sprite to Evan.
Caden sat beside Bella on the small blanket, hyperaware of their close proximity. Bella’s hair swept across her face again.
“Does anyone have a ponytail holder?” she asked.
“No, sorry,” Amy said.
The others shook their heads.
“I’m going to the flea market tomorrow and buying three boxes of them. One for my beach bag, one for my car, and one for at home. That way I’m never without,” Bella said. “Anyone want to go with me?”
“The Wellfleet Flea Market?” Evan asked.
“Yeah. Do you want to go?” Bella was asking Evan but looking at Caden with a glimmer of hope in her eyes.
“Ev?” Please say you want to go. He never thought he’d be hoping his son would want to do something so he could spend time with a girl.
“Yeah. I’m looking for a few PC games, and that discount guy is there on Sundays, remember, Dad?” Evan leaned forward with hope in his eyes.
Bella pulled her hair off her face again, and with the next breeze, it blew back in her face.
“Sure, we can go.” He tried to contain his excitement.
“Great.” Their eyes connected, and for a beat the world stood still. Bella blinked several times, as if she’d felt it too, and then she leaned forward and patted Evan’s leg, while Caden tried to catch his breath. “I know that video game guy. We’ll negotiate a better deal than the three for twenty.” When she turned her attention back to Caden, her eyes were guarded. “Swing by and pick me up at ten?”
“It’s a date.”
“It’s a trip to the flea market,” Bella said with a serious stare.
“Whatever it is, be sure to stop by and see me,” Leanna added.
Another gust of wind made the fire crackle and sparks fly into the air. Bella’s hair whipped around her face again. She reached up with both hands to push it away once more.
“Ugh. I always forget about the wind.”
“I can fix that.” Caden withdrew his tackle box from the bucket and cut a clean piece of fishing line. He sensed their eyes on him as he gathered Bella’s thick, luxurious hair in his hands. He wanted to linger there, with his hands in her hair, so close they’d brush cheeks if he leaned in a few inches. He cleared his throat and pushed the thought away. His son was sitting right there. What was he thinking?
He took Bella’s hand in his and wrapped her fingers around the thick rope of hair, holding it in place so he could tie it back. He leaned in close, inhaling her warm, inviting scent, and set to work tying the fishing line around it.
“So, you’re a cop and a hairstylist?” Jenna teased.
Bella touched the knotted fishing line and turned to face him. “Thank you. I think you just might be the best husband I’ve ever had.”
Evan’s eyes met his—and held.
Caden rolled his eyes to indicate it was a joke, and Evan, the king of eye rolls and whatevers answered with a knowing nod.
“Husband?” Leanna reached for a stick and pushed a marshmallow onto it. “Did I miss something?”
“It was a joke. He did something before and I said it meant we were married.” Bella finished her wine in one gulp, then reached for a marshmallow.
Jenna shot her a narrow-eyed stare and nodded toward Evan.
“Oh, Evan. I was kidding. Really. We just met last night,” Bella clarified.
“It’s okay. My dad doesn’t even date, so…” He shrugged.
Caden didn’t have time to respond before Amy said, “He doesn’t?”
“Nope.” Evan stuffed a marshmallow in his mouth.
When did you become Mr. Social?
“Why not?” Jenna asked.
“What is this, the Cahoon Hollow Beach Inquisition?” Bella turned to face him. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to answer them.”
Uh, yeah, I do. He wasn’t about to let them bat around reasons that would either make him look like a loser or a psycho. “Between work and Evan, there isn’t much time for a social life.”
“So, like, you never date? Or…” Amy asked.
“Maybe this isn’t something we should be discussing right now,” Bella suggested.
“I don’t care if my dad dates,” Evan said.
Caden hadn’t dated much over the years, and the few times he had, he hadn’t told Evan because he knew they weren’t dates that would lead to anything real. Now he read the silent question in his son’s eyes. Why don’t you date, Dad? And he decided that was a conversation best held in private.
“Well, if it makes you feel any better, I recently gave up dating, too,” Bella said before loading up her stick with another marshmallow.
“She’s kidding,” Jenna said quickly.
“Nope. I’m one hundred percent serious. I’m done with commitments.” Bella waved her hand in the air.
Her admission hit with the weight of lead, but the harsh looks Bella’s friends slid her way were skeptical.
“What’s wrong with commitments?” Caden wasn’t sure he could keep the fact that he actually cared about the answer out of his voice.
Bella stared at the fire as she answered. “They’re only as good as the people who make them.”
He saw pain in her eyes, and he wondered how deep that wound went. He needed to change the subject before they got into a discussion that could lead to Evan’s mother and make his son uncomfortable.
“So, how long are you guys at the Cape, or do you live here year-round?” A benign topic that would also give him more information about Bella. Perfect.
“I live here,” Leanna said as she handed out graham crackers and chocolate for s’mores.
“I’m here for the summer.” Amy passed a chocolate bar to Bella.
“Same here,” Jenna said.
Bella finished cooking her marshmallow in silence.
“Bella? Are you here for the summer, or do you live here?”
She stacked the chocolate on top of a graham cracker, added the warm marshmallow, and then topped it off with another graham cracker. She stared at it for a minute before cocking her head in his direction and answering.
“I’m here until the s’mores run out.”
Then let me run to the store for more marshmallows.
She took a bite of the gooey treat and licked a streak of chocolate from her lower lip. She had a dab of marshmallow on her cheek, and once again, it felt natural to reach over and wipe it clean with his finger.
Bella narrowed her eyes. Oops. There was that invisible boundary again. Maybe she wasn’t into him after all.
“I was saving that for later,” she said. With her back to Evan, who was preoccupied with his own dessert, she grabbed his hand and brought it to her mouth. His pulse quickened with the expectation of a sensually evocative suck. With wide, amused eyes, she turned his finger sideways and nibbled the sticky marshmallow off like it was corn on the cob.
“I’ll teach you not to steal my sugar. Open up.” She shoved the s’more toward his mouth.
“No, that’s okay.” He leaned out of reach to tease her.
“Come on. No one can resist s’mores.” She leaned in closer, holding the s’more to his lips. Her knee pressed against his thigh. “You know you want it.”
Yeah, I do. He took a bite of the sweet, sticky treat. Heat flashed in Bella’s eyes as she dragged her finger along the edge of his lower lip and held it up to show him the smear of chocolate before she slowly, seductively, sucked her finger clean.
Holy. Moly.
Beautiful, smart, and sexier than any woman he’d ever met. Bella piqued curiosities and desires that had been slumbering for way too long.